Page 34 of Misfit Monsters (Pack of Outcasts #1)

Periwinkle

J onah looks at the trees around us and back at his phone. “It should be right here.”

Mirage tips his head to one side and then the other before spinning around with a brief swoosh of a couple of fox tails. “If there’s no rift, there’s no work to do!”

Raze adjusts the bag of equipment slung over his bulky shoulder and frowns. “It can’t have disappeared, can it? Do rifts move?”

“They aren’t supposed to.” Jonah’s forehead furrows. “But this wasn’t like any other rift we know of, right?”

A wobble travels through my veins. “And the creatures coming out of it change like no other shadowkind do. Maybe it’s all part of the same energy—always morphing.”

Hail folds his arms over his chest. He offers a typically blasé tone. “If Rollick’s been getting reports of the strange activity up here for months, then the rift mustn’t move very far. Let’s get on with finding the stupid thing.”

Jonah motions to the rest of us. “We should spread out. Pay attention to the atmosphere—if you sense anything like the vibe the rift gave off, shout for the rest of us.”

As we fan out from the spot where the weird rift stood before, my skin creeps. I stay where I can still see Raze’s huge, sinewy form between the trees.

We haven’t come across any sign of more strange beings so far on this trek, but that doesn’t mean we won’t. And I’m not all that confident in my ability to protect myself.

I extend my awareness as far as I can, but I’m built for picking up on emotions, not bizarro shadow-realm energy. I haven’t noticed anything at all when the fox shifter lets out a bark.

“What is it?” I ask, hustling over to him.

By the time I reach him, Mirage’s emotions have calmed. He points to a crumpled mass of shiny paper on the ground. “No rifts, no worries. I stepped on that, and it startled me. It’s not part of the forest.”

I bend down. The paper is shiny because it’s coated with aluminum foil, the surface flecked with dirt… as well as dried smears of a dark red substance.

My pulse hiccups. I pick the paper up and give it a sniff.

The spicy tang of tandoori fills my nose. I drop the wrapper as if it burned me.

Jonah and Raze lope over from opposite directions. Raze takes one look at my face and bares his teeth. “What’s the matter?”

I shake my head quickly. “It’s nothing. Just some garbage. Another random coincidence.”

Lots of people eat tandoori. We had it at the academy just days ago. There’s no more reason to think this piece of trash is connected to my former captor than our cafeteria meal was.

Other than the fact that we know there’s a sorcerer with questionable intentions operating nearby.

As I rub my arms to will down the goosebumps, Jonah picks up the crumpled wrapper. “We need all the evidence we can get.”

Mirage sniffs the breeze. “The air is a little… wobbly this way.”

I step forward, ignoring the twinge that’s creeping up my ankles. “Maybe that’s where the rift wandered off to. We can find it!”

Raze has only taken a few more steps before his tongue flicks over his lips. “I can smell one of those unusual creatures. Not too fresh. The trail’s at least a few hours old.”

Jonah perks up. “Follow the trail back to where it came from.”

We tramp on through the woods, all together now. After a couple of minutes, a tingle of energy passes through my essence.

My head jerks up. “I think I can feel it.”

Hail nods, his pale face more intent than usual. “We’re close.”

We pick up our pace, twigs crackling under our feet. The energy reverberates more thickly through the air, and my nerves start jittering again.

We reach a small glade with a ridge of rock at one side. The rift looms right in front of the low cliff, blurring the vegetation I can see through it.

Jonah taps the new coordinates into his phone. “It moved half a mile in a couple of days. I wonder how often it drifts around?”

Hail grimaces. “Hopefully we’ll be done with this mission before we have to find out. ”

“Well, let’s get started…”

Our leader takes another step toward the rift—and a small, blue-and-gray form careens out of the nearby trees with a piercing shriek.

The creature is only a little bigger than a blue jay, with moth-like wings rather than feathered and at least ten slim pointed legs. But it dive-bombs Jonah’s face with those needly legs extended and its wings battering the air.

What kind of demented butterfly is this?

Jonah grunts and smacks the thing to the side. Its legs draw scarlet scratches across his knuckles. A few sharp sorcerous syllables burst from his lips.

As the wacko butterfly whirls back toward Jonah, Mirage leaps in. He springs up to bonk the creature with one hand like he’d spike a volleyball.

Apparently the insane insect isn’t interested in playing ball. It whips away from him and shoots off between the trees.

The five of us stare after it. Would laughing or screaming be more appropriate?

“That was… interesting,” Hail says, sounding equally bemused.

Jonah wavers on his feet and then grabs the first aid kit from his pack. “If it’s gone, it can’t bother us. No way to track it when it’s flying anyway. What’s most important is getting a read on this rift.”

But where was that creature going in such a hurry? Jonah’s sorcery didn’t stop it from wanting to attack. Did it really get so scared of Mirage?

I didn’t pick up any emotions from it at all, now that I think about it.

Uneasiness crawls down my spine, but I can’t say what exactly I’m nervous about.

Jonah wraps a length of gauze around his scratched knuckles and gestures to Raze, who hefts the bag off his shoulder and unzips it.

They pull the metal boxes with their knobs and buttons out of their padded containers, as well as a couple of folded cages that we could open up if a less-flighty creature comes through the rift. Hail moves closer to watch.

I don’t understand how the devices Rollick sent with us are supposed to operate, but there’s something reassuring about the pings and ticks as Jonah holds the first one up to the rift.

As if he’s bringing this strange phenomenon back into the realm of things that can be explained and catalogued.

It won’t remain an unsettling mystery for long.

Since I have no experience with technology, there isn’t much for me to do. I wander through the woods near the rift, testing whether I can catch hints of emotion from the forest’s inhabitants. Are more odd shadowkind lurking close enough for me to sense their presence?

I taste Jonah’s satisfaction at fulfilling Rollick’s request and Raze’s at helping with the job. Mirage exudes delight while chasing sunbeams that dart with the swaying overhead leaves. Hail has his feelings tightly under wraps as usual.

A little fear reaches me from a few forest animals who don’t know what to make of our presence, but I don’t taste anything that matches the shifting emotions the strange shadowkind give off.

After a while, Jonah switches from one device to another. “Once we’ve gotten all the readings, I’ll see if I can affect the rift with my sorcery. Maybe you should give yours a try too, Raze—see if basilisk poison will shrink it. If you’re all right with making the attempt.”

Raze dips his head and murmurs an answer I don’t hear, because at the same moment a different sort of energy zings right through my skull.

My heart lurches .

The energy crackles around in my head. Like when Jonah gives us his sorcerous commands, the words jabbing into my will like tiny fish hooks… except this zing has a darker, sharper flavor to it.

Every inch of my skin chills as if it’s been coated with ice.

I know this feeling. Like tarnished medals behind glass. Like tandoori chicken wrapped in aluminium foil in a dim basement room.

As my pulse pounds frantically, I throw my awareness in the direction the energy came from with all my concentration. A few whiffs of emotion—mortal, human—reach me.

Frustration like meat charred to black.

Anger like bursting peppercorns.

Greed like vanilla mousse that’s spoiled.

I know those feelings too. I’ve tasted those exact flavors.

All from the same source.

My throat constricts so fast I lose my breath.

All those little bits and pieces I’ve stumbled on—they weren’t just coincidences. The sorcerer messing with this rift is the man I knew, the same one who flung his shimmering net over me, shut me away in a cage, and dug his blades into my body to make me his anguished tool.

He’s here. He found these strange shadowkind and decided to turn them into his new slaves.

Any second now he’s going to realize that his attempt at latching on to my mind didn’t catch hold, that it bounced off the brief instruction Jonah gave me earlier. Then he’ll hit me even harder.

I don’t know for sure that my former captor has stronger magic than Jonah’s—but he is a lot older. He’s had much more practice. He commanded an army of shadowkind creatures a couple dozen strong .

If he captures me again—if he traps my teammates in his power?—

Horror sears through my veins alongside the blare of panic.

A shudder wracks my body, and my vision hazes. The dark emotions roiling beneath my skin heave to the surface.

The command Jonah gave me to control my power has faded since yesterday’s iteration.

Oh, no. I’m going to hurt them again. All of them, and every animal nearby, and?—

There’s one specific being I do want to hurt.

The idea hits me just as the agony blasts from my body. Darkness surges in every direction.

No!

I grope for a shred of control, picturing the man’s stocky body and pock-marked face, focusing on the place where I sensed those noxious emotions.

With a grunt that bursts from my throat, I heave all the fear and misery gushing out of me toward only him.

The wave roars around me, warbling through the trees. Somewhere farther off, it smacks into a form with a flare of acid-sour pain that echoes back into me.

Good. If there’s anyone in this world who doesn’t deserve happiness, it’s him.

More darkness careens through the woods. I have to stop him. I have to?—

Jonah’s voice pierces my head in a shout of sorcerous syllables.

The power rushing out of me contracts in a jolt so abrupt I stumble forward and fall to my knees. The distant pain flickers and dwindles—I think the man who meant to capture us is running away.

I sent him fleeing before he could dig his awful sorcery into any of us. A grin crosses my lips .

Footsteps thud toward me.

“What was that?” Disappointment rings through Jonah’s voice and wafts off his presence. “Peri, you seemed fine. If you were getting worked up, you were supposed to warn us.”

Mirage shuffles over, rubbing a wound on his arm that’s dribbling smoky essence.

As I look at him, guilt clamps around my gut. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. There was—I had to?—”

“You had to screw up the whole mission yet again,” Hail interrupts in a caustic tone. He holds up one of Rollick’s devices. “All of the tech we brought is going haywire thanks to you, pipsqueak.”

What? I scramble to my feet, my pulse racing. “I tried to direct it away from you, away from the rift, as quickly as I could. I was throwing it over there—I mustn’t have been fast enough.”

Raze’s forehead furrows. “You let out that blast of darkness on purpose?”

Jonah’s mouth twists, and Mirage winces.

They don’t understand. If my former captor tried to aim his sorcery at my companions too, they didn’t recognize the effect.

Of course they didn’t. I’m the only one who knows this sorcerer. I’ve been recognizing him all along and not wanting to believe it.

I don’t even know for sure that he’s gone.

“We have to be careful!” I blurt out. “He was close—I could feel it. If he tries again?—”

Hail sneers. “You lost your head in more silly paranoia and exploded your crazy energy all over. Now we’ve got to go back and get new equipment to start the whole job over again. What do you figure Rollick is going to say when he finds out how everything got broken?”

A clammier chill sweeps through me. I’ve caused another incident, and this one was so much more destructive than the one before.

Destruction we can’t gloss over.

Before I can say anything, Jonah rakes his hand through his hair. “We have to give Rollick the whole story. I don’t know, Peri. I’ve tried—but maybe you need something more to get you stabilized than any of us can offer.”

“No!” Another tremor shakes my body. “Please. I was only trying to help. The sorcerer was trying to catch us like he always does?—”

Raze holds out his hands, a flicker of worry crossing his face and wavering through the air between us. “Just calm down, Peri. We’ll figure it out.”

They think I’m freaking out over nothing again. They’re afraid that I might lose control.

What can I say that’ll convince them?

Is there anything I could say that’ll matter?

I finally got some handle on my powers and pointed them toward the right target… but I still ruined everything we were working on.

And when Rollick finds out, even he’s going to want to banish me.

A sob breaks from my throat. I can’t protect anyone. I only make things worse.

Blinking away tears, I hurl myself into the shadows and dash away as fast as I can go.